The Mile Post #51 cache along the Sussex Branch Trail showcases one of the premier rail trails in the Skylands regions of NJ. Formerly the Sussex Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, this line is steeped in history as well as remarkable scenery. With only a few short interruptions, it is possible to trace this abandonment over twenty miles between the towns of Netcong and Branchville. This section of the Sussex Branch Trail follows the route through Sussex County from Byram Township in the south to Branchville Borough.
This section of the Sussex Branch Trail also got its start providing service in 1848 as the narrow-gauge, mule-drawn Sussex Mine Railroad, whose primary purpose was hauling iron ore from the mines in Andover to Waterloo Village on the Morris Canal. The railroad was eventually upgraded and expanded before being merged into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the mid-1940s. Though the railroad was out of service several decades later, the state of New Jersey—which owns much of the area parkland—preserved the right-of-way for trail use.
Post #51
Railroads have long had their mile markers, too. They are called mile posts. These mile posts are the geographical measure of a railroad line. Their zero mile post locations and their end points often tell us something about the history of the line. Mile posts allow train crews to determine their exact location along otherwise nondescript stretches of geography. Mile post locations can be identified from a physical inspection of the property. Mile posts generally exist along every mile of the railroad. In many areas they are similar in appearance to the mile pole markers found along interstate highways.
The SBT or Sussex Branch Trail Geotrail showcases one of the premier rail trails in the Skylands regions of NJ. Formerly the Sussex Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, this line is steeped in history as well as remarkable scenery. With only a few short interruptions, it is possible to trace this abandonment over twenty miles between the towns of Netcong and Branchville.
The chronology of this railroad's lifespan is of particular interest. Its predecessor, the Sussex Mine Railroad, spanned only seven miles from Waterloo Village on the Morris Canal to Andover Iron Mine just northeast of the town of Andover. Completed in 1851, this line was narrow gauged, meaning the rails were only forty inches apart. The Mine Railroad relied on mules to pull the ore carts rather than steam engines. This line is referred to as a "predecessor" because the Sussex Railroad, built in 1854 and extended to Newton, utilized only about two miles of the "mine" railroad's right of way. Both lines were the brainchild of Abrahm S. Hewitt, a mining pioneer at Long Pond near Ringwood as well as co-founder of the Cooper-Hewitt furnaces in Phillipsburg. Most significantly, this was Sussex County's first railroad.
Abandoned in 1969, the entire rail line was acquired by the state in 1982. Now, with only short sections in Cranberry Lake and Newton where road detours are necessary, foot, bicycle, and equestrian uses are all permitted. Few trails of this kind blend with their surroundings with such intimacy as the Sussex Branch. It is not overdone, no pavement, little or no effort has gone into re-grading the surface. What we have here is a simple path of dark cinder dirt, some ballast rock here and there, surrounded by nature reclaiming the land that was taken from it long ago.